M.A. in Classics

Available here, in addition to a statement of degree requirements, is the reading list for the degree and a supplementary reading list for historical background.

Requirements

The M.A. in Classics requires ten courses (30 credits) in Greek and Latin at the graduate level, completion of an independent reading list, demonstration of proficiency in a modern foreign language, usually French or German, and comprehensive written and oral examinations.

Course Work

Six to eight courses a year are normally available to graduate students. A thesis or independent paper option is also available for three or six credits; requires departmental permission.

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Modern Language

Proficiency is demonstrated by a one-hour translation test in which the use of a dictionary is allowed. This test does not form part of the comprehensive exams. It may be taken at a student's earliest convenience, the sooner the better.

Comprehensive Exams

These include a two-hour exam in Greek literature, a two-hour exam in Latin literature, and a one-hour oral exam.

Each written exam requires the translation of three passages and the composition of an essay about one of them; the essay asks a student to identify the passage in its literary context and the author in his historical context. Written exams are based on the reading list and on a student's course work. Use of a dictionary is not allowed.

The oral exam is open-ended, testing whether a student can keep a conversation going for an hour on the topic of classical literature in its historical context. A supplementary reading list suggests books on political, social, and literary history.

Summary of Requirements

30 credits of coursework (may include three or six credit thesis)

Proficiency test in a modern foreign language

Two-hour written examination on Greek literature

Two-hour written examination on Latin literature

One-hour oral examination

Reading List

The list contains options as well as requirements. Each student will be expected, before taking comprehensive exams, to submit an individualized list. For print purposes see Reading List in pdf format.

READINGS IN GREEK

Homer

Iliad 1, 6, 9, 16, 22, 24

Odyssey 1, 9-12

The whole of both poems in English

Hesiod, or Lyric, either of the following:

Hesiod, Works & Days 1-201 and Theogony 1-210

David Campbell, ed., Greek Lyric Poetry, selections of:

Archilochus (including Cologne fragmentAppendix)

Mimnermus

Sappho (1, 16, 31, 55, 104a, 105a, 105c, 130)

Anacreon (357, 358, 395, 417)

Solon

Drama

In Greek, one play from each dramatist:

Aeschylus, Agamemnon or Prometheus Bound

Sophocles, Oedipus Rex or Antigone

Euripides, Medea or Bacchae

Aristophanes, Clouds or Frogs

In English, at least six plays from among:

Aeschylus, Oresteia

Sophocles, Ajax and Oedipus at Colonus

Euripides, Alcestis, Hecuba, Helen, and Hippolytus

Aristophanes, Acharnians, Lysistrata, and Birds

Herodotus, Histories 1 or 6

Thucydides, History 6 or 7; the whole History in English

Plato, either of the following:

Republic 10

Apology and Crito

The whole Republic in English

Hellenistic Poetry, from Neil Hopkinson, A Hellenistic Anthology:

Theocritus, Idyll 11 (= HA ix)

Aratus, Phaenomena 1-18, 96-136 (= HA vi-vii)

Callimachus, Hymn 5 (= HA iii)

Funerary and Amatory Epigrams (= HA xxvi, 1-24)

READINGS IN LATIN

Comedy

In Latin, two plays from among:

Plautus, Aulularia, Mostellaria, and Pseudolus

Terence, Adelphoe, and Phormio

In English, three other plays:

Catullus, Poems 1-16, 31-42, 44-46, 49-51, 58, 64, 76, 101

Lucretius, De rerum natura 1. 1-58 (Proem), 5.925-1420 (Anthropology)

Cicero, two from among:

Pro Caelio

Somnium Scipionis

David Stockton, Thirty-five Letters of Cicero

Caesar, Gallic War 1

Virgil, Aeneid 2, 4, 6, 8, 12; the whole Aeneid in English.

Horace, selected poems:

Odes 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, 1.15, 1.22, 1.37

Odes 2.3, 2.13, 2.14, 2.16

Odes 3.5, 3.11, 3.13, 3.21, 3.30 Odes 4.7

Satires 2.6

Elegy, selected poems:

Propertius 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.10, 3.1, 3.3, 4.1, 4.7

Tibullus 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.10, 2.5

Ovid, Amores 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.9, 1.13, 2.19, 3.2

Ovid, selections from Metamorphoses:

1.452-567 (Apollo and Daphne)

3.138-253 (Actaeon)

3.339-510 (Echo and Narcissus)

4.55-166 (Pyramus and Thisbe)

6.1-145 (Arachne)

8.153-235 (Daedalus and Icarus)

10.243-97 (Pygmalion)

10.298-502 (Myrrha)

11.410-748 (Ceyx and Alcyone)

Livy, Histories 1 or 21

Tacitus, Annals 15

Novel, either of the following:

Petronius, Satyricon 26-78 (Trimalchio)

Apuleius, Metamorphoses 4.28-6.24 (Cupid and Psyche)

SUPPLEMENTARY READING LIST

As general background to the study of classical antiquity, we strongly recommend that you read some basic works on the political and social history of Greece and Rome, especially if you have never taken a course on those subjects. The books below are recent classics that we like, but there are many available; feel free to make substitutions.